ABSTRACT

As the twentieth century, the most violent and destructive in all human history, is drawing to a close, we witness some of the most radical changes in the intentional environment – changes that, on the face of it, should have given us causes for unrestrained optimism. Economic advances take place nearly everywhere; East-West conflict and the threat of a nucleus holocaust came to an end; and Eastern Europe, for so many years the focus of superpowers’ conflict, is now merely a historical memory. A new spirit of superpower cooperation in the United Nations and elsewhere resulted in a greater consensus on the need to strengthen international and regional organizations, and a commitment to deal effectively and peacefully with many conflicts. In such a context, talk of a ‘New World Order’, particularly in the wake of the Persian Gulf War, seemed both apposite and appropriate. Alas, in many ways such perceptions have proved to be merely illusory. Though we may well live in a ‘new world’, it is a world from which order is noticeably absent. The threat of a nuclear war may have subsided but conflict and violence are still very much with us. More than 80 conflicts, in two dozen locations, involving at least 64 governments, took place in the immediate few years following the end of the Cold War. Of these conflicts, 35 resulted in largescale fatalities of 1,000 deaths or more. Most of those killed were civilians. In 1992-3 alone, close to one million people died as a result of conflict, and 20 million refugees had to flee from the effects of conflict. The United Nations found itself involved in more than 13 peacekeeping operations during that year – the most in its 50-year history. The new world that emerged in the shadow of the Cold War was a world of aggressive nationalism and chaos.